Into the Dark Unknown
by RottenedRipe
Summary: Whether it's in her nightmares or in her room, Mina just can't shake Teague for even a day. He ends up pressuring her into making a few unfortunate decisions and then takes full advantage of the situation. [Post-Reign; Meague]
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Be prepared for a sort of AU and possibly OOC fic. I'm in the mood to write something silly and smutty. I'll keep it as classy as possible, but I'm not making any promises. ;)

* * *

><p><em>Her legs burned and each breath she took was harder than the last. She was slowing down and the sound of her pursuer was getting closer. The light from the full moon was fading as the trees around her grew denser. She hoped the dark would make it harder for her pursuer to find her, but it also meant she'd have a harder time avoiding obstacles in her way. <em>

_A thick branch bit at her neck and she cried out in pain almost stumbling to the ground. They couldn't catch her. She wouldn't let them. Another burst of adrenaline coursed through her veins and she took a sharp left hoping to shake them. The sound of their pursuit died down and she felt a small wave relief. She might make it out of this after all. Moonlight illuminated ground ahead of her giving just enough time for her to catch herself at the edge of the black abyss that stretched in either direction for miles. _

_The angry sounds of her pursuer were growing louder again. Her legs had grown heavy as the adrenaline in her veins ran its course. She could see their ominous shadow walking toward her from the edge of the trees. She had nowhere else to go and they knew it. The sound of rushing water far below gave her the smallest shred of hope and in her desperation she stepped off the edge into the dark unknown. _

_Her pursuer lunged at her and she smiled victoriously. His angry gaze followed her into the dark filled with another emotion that made her question her decision too late._

Mina's heart was pounding in her chest and sweat made her pajamas cling uncomfortably to her. She slowly opened her eyes and was relieved to see that she was safe in her room alone. She had fallen out of her bed and her legs were tangled in her blanket still halfway on her bed. She stayed that way, trying to calm her racing heart. Teague was a fixture in her nightmares that couldn't escape. She closed her eyes again but quickly opened them again. His eyes from her nightmare were burned into the back of her eyelids. They had seemed almost gray.

She pinched her eyes together and sighed. She didn't have time to think about this. Glancing at her alarm clock, she saw that there was still almost an hour before her alarm would go off at 7:00. She had a long day ahead of her after an already long night—the image of the explosion that destroyed GM headquarters flashed into her mind. It felt like an eternity ago, not hours.

There was little time to plan their next move. She couldn't even afford to mourn Mei's death. They, which included Nan, Brody, and Ever, decided that they should get a few hours of sleep and regroup in the morning. Teague wanted the dagger, but she would be damned if she was going to give him a weapon that could make him even more evil and powerful than he already was. She was convinced that somehow it held the answer to removing the small piece corrupting his heart.

Mina untangled herself from her blankets and threw it and the pillows she had apparently flung across the room during her restless sleep back onto the bed. Running a shaky hand through her hair, she realized just how unnerved she really was with everything that has happened and could happen. She needed a hot shower.

The heat and steam were exactly what she needed. She walked back to her room with her towel wrapped around her feeling calm and relaxed. She flung open her curtains to let in the morning as the sun's first rays peaked over the horizon. A fine morning mist still hung in the air. Turning away from the window, her breath caught in her throat. Her nightmare manifested was leaning against her closed door with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What are you doing here?" Mina sneered once she found her breath again. She clung tightly to her towel that suddenly felt entirely too small for her.

"Good morning to you, too, Mina," Teague smirked and stepped toward her. A chill went down her back at his dark gaze that roved lazily over her towel clad body.

"I've already told you I don't have the dagger," she spat. She figured if she skipped a few steps and told him what he really wanted to know she would be rid of his unnerving gaze sooner. "Now leave me alone."

"You're awfully rude today. We haven't even gotten past the formalities yet," he stepped even closer as he spoke until he was standing barely an arm's length away from her.

"You don't deserve my courtesy. So, like I said, leave. Now," she said through clenched teeth. Of course he would decide to show up while she was so vulnerable. It was his specialty and with her mirror he could time everything perfectly. Her mirror…he couldn't have been watching…no. No, not even he could be so low as to go there, would he? The very possibility made her stomach roll.

"I don't plan on leaving until I get what I want, Mina," he placed his hands on either side of her pinning her against her open window. Her heart began to race at his nearness and she could feel her body temperature rise. The sun was starting to show itself, its light illuminating Teague's stormy blue eyes. "And what I want is that dagger."

"I don't ha—," she began, but he cut her short.

"When are you going to stop lying?" he growled. He roughly grabbed her bare shoulders and brought his lips to her ear. She suddenly found it hard to breathe and tightened her death grip on her towel to keep it in place. After taking in a breath he whispered, "I know you have it and you will give it to me. If you don't, you can expect your precious friends to pay the price next."

Her heart was pounding, but now it was out of fear for her friends and anger for Teague's malice. He pulled away from her but didn't move his hands from her shoulders as he gazed into her glaring eyes. He ran the back of his hand down her cheek and gently cupped her chin. "You have until nightfall to make your choice."

Mina pushed his hands off of her and turned her back to him hoping he would be gone when she turned back around. He was. Letting out a shaky breath she didn't realize she had been holding she flung herself onto her bed and screamed into her pillow.


	2. Chapter 2

They had been holed up at her house all day debating different ways to prevent Teague from hurting anyone else without giving him what he wants—the dagger. "They" consisted of Brody, Ever, Nan, and Mina—Nix was still with the Godmothers, wherever they were, helping them tend to the wounded Fae that had escaped Teague's wrath and establish a safe new headquarters. Mina had convinced her mom and Charlie to spend the day at a comic con that was in town for the weekend. She knew that Charlie would love to go somewhere dressed in his best where other people were dressed just as strangely as him. Plus, it was a great way to keep her mom from worrying too much about Mina's life. Sara's state of being was fragile as it were without the added stress.

Mina had filled her friends in on everything that had happened during her time traveling escapade. Well, she didn't tell them about Teague's visits to her room and their kiss right before Ferah stabbed him, but she figured it wouldn't affect their ability to come up with a solid plan of attack. Quite honestly, she just didn't want to hurt Brody or Ever with the unnecessary details. In the end, they all agreed that the best way to stop him from causing any more harm, without killing him, would be to subdue him and remove the shard of dagger left in his heart. After many long hours of brainstorming and many more bouts of silence where smoke could be seen coming from their ears, that was as far as they had made it with their master plan.

For the past half hour Mina had been sneaking nervous glances out of her living room window. Panic was growing in her as the sun inched ever closer to the horizon, Teague's warning echoing through her head. She had hoped that they would come up with at least half of a plan so that they could wing the rest, but they barely had a notion of a plan. She had a "Plan B", but it involved going against everything that she believed in.

"What if we go in disguised as servants and…"

"You already said that."

"No! This one is different. If we can get to the Fates then we could…"

"Could what? Tell them that we want to stab their son with the very knife that can make him completely evil to get the rest of it that's been lodged in heart making him only slightly evil in comparison for the past however many years?"

"It's just an outline, we can work out the details later."

"There won't be any working out details later because it's a terrible plan."

Nan and Ever had been going at it like this for a few minutes now. One of them would start off with an idea and the other would shoot it down for whatever reason. Brody had tried to get them to get along for a while, but for the past few minutes he's done nothing but stare intently at a spot on the wall. Whether he was thinking really hard on a great idea or his brain was overheated Mina couldn't be sure, but she was betting on the latter. Her brain was pretty fried itself.

"Why don't you come up with something good then? You're obviously the master of planning how best to kidnap a crazed prince with powers that scare even the Fates and stab him in the heart without making him even more crazed and powerful," Nan threw her hands up into the air for the umpteenth time that day.

"Maybe I could if you would stop spouting off all of your awful plans before thinking them through," Ever retorted, a wind stirring the open books scattered around the library from the pixie's wings.

Mina realized what she was giving up by stopping them. There was no getting them to work together, not tonight anyway. Even if she could, they probably wouldn't come up with anything significant enough to get her out of this mess. They had failed and she had to go with the dreaded "Plan B". With a heavy sigh, she forced herself to shoulder the entire weight of her burden and stood up, "I think we should call it quits tonight."

The slight whirlwind in the room died down, and Ever and Nan stopped arguing. Brody snapped out of his daze, relieved. He stood stretching his lean, muscled arms over his head to reveal part of his equally muscled stomach that Mina couldn't help but ogle. When he noticed her gaze, she flushed and looked away. He put his arms down and smiled at her, but she was too embarrassed from being caught to notice, "Yeah, we made some progress, which is better than nothing."

"If we do this every day we might be able to have a complete plan by the end of the week," Nan chirped happily, jumping up from the pillow on the floor she had been sitting on. She wasn't able to stick to one spot all day making her way from couch to chair, to coffee table, back to the couch, then to various positions on the floor that went from laying under the coffee table to sitting against all of the furniture in turn.

Ever's frustrated expression had softened to one that unsettled Mina, but Ever didn't say anything. She just sat looking thoughtfully grim in the armchair she'd occupied most of the day.

"I'm outtie. See you guys tomorrow," Nan didn't even look their way as she made her way upstairs, her thumbs already flying across touch pad of her phone. She had decided she would be staying in one of Mina's unoccupied rooms in order to "better see to Mina's needs" as she told Ever when she showed up at her door with several suitcases this morning. Ever seemed a bit put out when she found out that Nan would be staying with them. As of last night, she was also staying with Mina to watch over her as her newly appointed Godmother.

"I'm going to go home. I'm exhausted," Brody stifled a yawn and made his way to the door. Mina followed him out into the last rays of daylight to see him off.

Standing outside the front door, Mina and Brody stood facing one another awkwardly. Mina chewed on her lip and tug at a lock of brown hair not knowing what to say.

He had been shockingly calm throughout everything that had happened in the past 24 hours—during her disappearing and reappearing acts, the explosion at GM Headquarters, Mei's death—as well as all the other Fae deaths, and planning how best to overthrow an evil prince. She thought he would have thrown his bracelet at her and made a break for the hills by now leaving it all behind, and yet here he was standing right in front of her ready to help her fight her worst nightmare to the end. He truly was a knight in shining armor. Sadness welled up inside of her knowing that this could be the last time that Mina ever saw him if her plan completely backfired on her.

"Mina, I'm sorry we didn't accomplish more today," Brody said breaking the awkward silence. He stepped closer to her and cupped her hand in his. "But we will figure this out before anyone gets hurt. I promise."

She stared up at his blue eyes that were normally twinkling, but instead they were dark with determination. A breeze ruffled his blond hair and in the glow of the setting sun he looked stunning. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him, momentarily dissipating the sadness that had settled there. Her eyes drank in the sight of him trying to burn every small detail of this moment into her mind so that she would never forget.

Barely able to speak and unable to come up with anything better, she whispered, "Thank you."

Something stirred in Brody's eyes and he suddenly pulled her into a kiss that melted Mina to her toes. She felt him start to pull away, but she reached up behind his neck and pulled him closer to her. She poured every ounce of emotion that she felt for him into her kiss and she thought that she could feel his. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her body so tightly to his that she thought she might melt right into him. Mina felt the air spark with magic bringing her back reality. Teague's face flashed in her mind and fear gripped her. She pulled away from Brody and as soon as she did the magic seemed to ease a little, making her more curious than anything.

She looked up at Brody and saw that he was smiling and his eyes were twinkling again. "That was one hell of a goodbye kiss."

She smiled sadly feeling the weight of truth in his words even if he didn't. She wrapped her arms around him again in a final parting hug. "Goodbye," she said into his chest, muffling her words.

"Until tomorrow," he bent down to give her one last kiss before getting into his black car. He smiled at her as he pulled away. She smiled weakly in return and waved goodbye knowing that she wouldn't be seeing him tomorrow, or possibly ever again. She stayed and watched him drive through the gate and down the hidden little road that lead out to the main one. When he was gone from sight she turned to go back inside, fear rolling her stomach.

The sun had just touched the horizon. Time was running out.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm sorry that this chapter isn't smutty and lacks in Teague-ness. To make amends, I'll make the next chapter twice as long and make good on my promise of smut and a very Teague filled chapter.


End file.
